Here's the skinny of a coyote problem I ran into today...

About 9:45am I heard dogs barking out back.. normally I don't attribute too much to it because all my neighbors have dogs and they all bark, however this time I heard a lot of growling and yelping, and honestly thought my dog was in a fight. So I run downstairs and out the back door onto the patio and see my dog pissed off growling and barking ferociously against a coyote on the other side of the fence. As well every other dog in the neighborhood is pissed off and barking up a storm.

The coyote is actually rather large, compared to past experiences I've seen with coyotes and could easily leap my chain link fence with no problem if he/she so chose. So I run back inside and grab my .270 from the bedroom closet and run back out in time to see the coyote running off in the distance (towards a park where I know a lot of kids and their moms play during the day) and never took a shot on it. So I write it off as a missed opportunity (so to speak).

About 20 mins later, Aurora Animal Control comes knocking at my door asking me about it. I'd never called in the incident, however oddly enough a neighbor across the beltway/easement behind me had seen the whole thing and had actually videotaped it and they were the people who called in animal control. They were concerned about the coyote problem as well.

Here's the kicker though... Animal Control had informed me that if I had shot the coyote, I would have been fined for it. WTF!!!! So basically my job should have been..."Let the coyote potentially kill my dog then file a claim?" WTF is that?

I really can't bring myself to accept that. Does anybody here know differently? Just curious. I'm a pit pissed off at the moment and have to vent.

What pissed me off the most was when animal control was at my house I told them I would like to file a report about a wildlife creature causing problems in the neighborhood. And they told me they would require proof of the problem before they could act on it...wtf do they think the video was? ILM magic?